McKinney officials have begun evaluating how to expand the existing city limits with increasingly restricted annexation power.
McKinney’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) has become a focal point for residential development, but recent bills passed by Texas lawmakers challenge the city’s ability to incorporate these projects into its limits.
Both Senate Bill 6 in 2017 and House Bill 347 in 2019 created new limits on municipal annexation practices. The first made it so that cities could no longer annex ETJs without property owners’ approval, and the latter provided further details about the procedures of consent by population.
Prior to the legislative changes, McKinney annexed ETJ lots each year from 2014 to 2016. The city aims to continue this growth into the future by expanding further into its ETJ.
“The main goal though is to fill … in our city limits,” explained Michael Quint, the city’s executive director of Development Services, according to Community Impact.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, McKinney — like many cities in the metroplex — has experienced large population and business growth in recent years.
McKinney officials have thus been keeping an eye on the many attractive multifamily and single-family projects going on in the ETJ.
As The Dallas Express reported, Corson Cramer Development announced plans in April to develop a new residential community on more than 40 acres of land between Weston Road and Trinity Falls Parkway.
The Dallas-based land developer will erect over 100 single-family residential lots worth between $500,000 and $600,000.
For a growing population like that of McKinney, having different housing options for residents is essential.
“[The Weston Road project] is an opportunity for the homes to be a little bit more attainable, a little bit more affordable for younger families, which is really what the goal is,” explained Larry Corson, co-founder and managing director of Corson Cramer Development, according to Community Impact.
Another challenge brought on by the municipal annexation changes is that, as McKinney Mayor George Fuller explained, “[City officials] have no control [in] the ETJ of what’s getting built,” according to Community Impact.
Instead, everything goes through Collin County, even though the ETJs are home rule and general law municipalities.
This complicates efforts to design a comprehensive plan for McKinney and its ETJ.
“When you look at our city limits, we call it the greatest example of Swiss cheese you can find,” pointed out Quint, according to Community Impact. “There’s gaps in all of our contiguous limits.”
To remedy some of these issues, McKinney officials have conceived of various incentives to make annexation more appealing to its ETJ property owners and those investing in the area to gain their approval.
This is especially important since ETJ residents may benefit from several city initiatives without paying taxes for them.
McKinney’s Capital Improvement Program is one of these incentives, a five-year plan for major capital projects.
“Historically, at least in McKinney’s ETJ, annexation has been very polarizing,” Quint explained, according to Community Impact. “What we’re trying to do is take the polarization out of it through partnerships.”
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